


Unspoken Words

by Relyc



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, I'm Bad At Tagging, Mostly Fluff, Work In Progress, few chapters long
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-07-16 04:28:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7252081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Relyc/pseuds/Relyc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><div>
  <p>Alei's relationship with Solas is going in a slow pace as the apostate seems preoccupied with other matters. It's not an issue until Cole decides to speak her mind on the way back from a journey, leaving awkwardness floating in the air, two confused companions, and an Elven Inquisitor wanting to crawl into a hole.</p>
  <p>Only time will tell how Solas takes the news.</p>
</div>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Nosy Companion

The inquisitor walked with her small group consisting of Solas, Cole, Iron Bull, and Dorian back towards Skyhold after some slight exploring. The group started as just four, but Cole wanted to tag along to help others; there was no way Alei could say no. It had been one of those less adventurous outings to check the morale of soldiers around Hinterlands. If things were going as well as the Inquisition had hoped, the travel would have not taken weeks. Most of the time was spent trying not to cause more chaos between the Red Templars and inhabitants of the land.

The majority of them wore tired expressions while Cole gazed forward with curiosity in his eyes towards the Elven leader.

"She enjoys the subtle romance and yet, her loins desire more"

His voice was very soft as he spoke in a general fashion that caught everyone's attention. The silence prior didn't help. Dorian rose a brow along with Iron Bull. The two now had a spark of interest, at what was going on, in their eyes. The inquisitor's face heated up faintly, but her eyes stayed looking forward to act as if she didn't hear a word Cole spoke. Acknowledging his words would only add to the situation, at least the cold help hide the red in her face. Out of them all, Solas seemed the least affected. He tried showing no emotion, but his face held surprise: in the level of his brows raising just the slightest.

"She?"

Dorian's voice held confusion and yet he spoke the words Iron Bull was questioning also. He had stopped walking to turn back at the innocent Cole. The others had also paused on the dirt path, to Alei's demise.

"He's surprised by it all. 'She does?', he questions inside."

Cole's direction of vision says it all. The large Qunari and Tevinter turn to gaze at the short Inquisitor. Alei remained with her attention forward and feet still moving against the icy ground. It wasn't so much of what those two knew, it's what the silent Elven mage now knew. Something he wasn't supposed to know, there was no telling how he'd take something like that.

Their relationship only got as far as passionate kissing once, excluding the times in the Fade.

"We're here"

Her words struggled at first to come out and ended with a bit of a shriek. In the near distance was Skyhold. She avoided Cole's words even more, along with the glances of her fellow companions, and her pace increased. It started with a faster walk before a mad dash developed, which left the others far in the dust: literal and figurative. This wasn't her intent, but her body was moving on its own nervousness of the subject.

Alei rushed past everyone casually enjoying the outdoors and ran inside the large old castle that was now dubbed home. Her footing was almost lost when she tripped on a random brick on the floor, a sign the place was still being revamped. Something helped keep her up.

"What's the hurry, your Inquisitorialness?"

The voice didn't register at first, but the smug looking dwarf smiling cheekily up at her fixed that. One of his hands grasped her arm and the other was on her shoulder. Varric was the reason she wasn't on the floor flat against her petite face.

Having this moment to pause, Alei could feel her heartbeat pounding from the running and the sheer panic over what Cole announced to Solas. Her eyes must of showed a sign of the worry since the smile slid into a concerned expression on Varric's rugged face.

"Thank you, Varric. I'll be heading to my chambers now"

She pulled back from his grasp, while Varric held his tongue on a response. He gave her a look of knowing something was off, but Alei simply waved briefly. She did a swift rotating motion to get around her dwarf companion and headed towards the large door that lead to her room.


	2. Half-Read Book

The stairs were almost nothing to Alei as her Fade-touched hand gripped the railing on the way up. It was almost a blur. Her mind was on a one track direction and that was to hide from Solas. Hiding wasn't going to solve anything, but it sure felt like a safe place to start.

She loved him, no doubt, yet the words spoken without her permission were more than the apostate was ever told prior. No amount of love could cover that fear of his judgement. The way his eyes wandered over her, as is with question, was enough.

_I cannot believe Cole._

She took in a deep breath once in her room; her eyes looked towards the desk in the corner with a lot of documents and a few books stacked on it. 

_A distraction._

Solas barely went out of his way to directly speak to her, so as long as Alei remained out of his area in the castle the topic could be avoided. She would also need to tip-toe around mention of spirits or Fade unless she wanted his cold eyes watching in anticipation of what she had to say on the matter. It was something the Elf knew well after knowing Solas for over a year, while helping out the Inquisition.

The only reason they conversed at the start was due to her own curiosity and accidentally sparking interest in him by the actions she took as leader.

Sighing at the thought of him, Alei swayed slightly in her steps. Her rear planted itself on the chair, too fancy for her own tastes, and her arms rested on the desk. There was not much to hide behind tonight besides catching up on what built into a mound of work while she was away. It wasn't the most fun to do, but it was better than hide behind lies to keep distance between her and Solas.

_It's fine._

Alei's slender fingers carefully began to sort between important and minor documents.

_He is likely to brush it off._

In between sorting, she found herself with one of the books that was left half-read before leaving. Its pale colored vellum pages were frayed on the edges from years of wear. The book had been with Alei since day one of being leader and was full of personal encounters with beings from the Fade. Prior to the Rift, very few pages were filled, but now a big portion of the book was full of sketches and thoughts. A small part of her hated that spirits found their way into the whole 'let's avoid anything Solas or Fade' thing.

Even this, however, could not stop each flip of the page that fueled the sparkle in Alei's eyes. That spark slowly faded as time did and it wasn't long before her freckled face was laying against the wooden desk. Her head not far from a candle that she lit a few moments before to counter the act of the sun's slow set. Her body slowly rose and lowered a tad with each breath with the pointed long ears of her race getting closer to the flame every time she exhaled.

Right before Alei's ear could be embraced by the fire, her eyes shot open and frantically she scrambled to sit up in the chair. This wasn't the intended outcome and now her tired eyes were greeted by the darkness of the sky gently touched with a few stars. It was hard to pinpoint the exact time spent with body slouched over, but it was indeed long enough to cause back pain. For a second, Alei was without movement; her mind groggy. 

_Why should I care? He probably doesn't._

Alei used the table to help lift her body up from the spot that had consumed her for hours, before almost walking with a drunken trudge. When just inches from the bed, she flopped down onto it and fell back to slumber within seconds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alei's appearance will stay mostly vague, besides her being the Inquisitor, an Elf, short, and that she's covered in freckles. While this is based on an Inquisitor I made, I want there to be wiggle room for the readers to imagine her as they please.
> 
> Also the chapters will hopefully lengthen after this!


	3. Don't Hurt Her

When the next day came, it wasn't the light of the sun shining in that woke her. The rays affected her barely, if at all, as her body laid half sprawled on the bed at an hour before noon. Alei was so absorbed into sleeping that there was no reaction to the creak of the door or when the intruder stood a few inches from the Inquisitor's bed.

It took a tug of the sheets that caused her limp body to flip over to make the elf's eyes open with a glare. She was met by the devilish smirk of her Tevinter mage pal.

_This is too early._

"It seems like I'm impeding on your beauty sleep. Such a shame, it seems like you'll need more"

Dorian's words cause the inquisitor to slide to a sitting position; her hands tiredly rubbing her face to wake up more.

"There is never enough for you and that personality"

He rose a brow at the sass returned.

"I think there is jealousy in your voice"

A groan came from the elf and a pillow was thrown at Dorian, but it was simply batted back in a swift single motion. He waited, standing, near the bedside for her to get up. He hadn't come to simply bother her. There was stuff needing to be talked over regarding the War Table and no one else dared to come wake the Inquisitor. Though, Dorian had no desire to force her out quite yet.

The second Alei stood on her feet, he casually pulled her with himself.

"You look terrible"

While partly offended, the Tevinter went on to explain what caused Alei's mouth to open in surprise.

"Look at yourself"

The weeks outdoors did not do her good and the clothes clinging to her body showed obvious dirt. She hadn't even changed when they first got back due to the panic caused by Cole.

There was an initial fighting response from Alei, but there was not much to fight with how gross she looked. One look at her would make any allies scrunch their nose and any possible ones to backtrack. Soon after the fight was lost, a wash bin was pulled out from storage in the Inquisitor's room. The short elf slowly slid tiredly out of the cloth that clung to her body with filth into smallclothes; they weren't any cleaner. During her stripping, Dorian used his skills to combine ice with fire magic to create a bath of heated water that countered the cold of Skyhold. He knew she was in deep need of this, yet his dark eyes seemed to look over towards the stairs leading up to her room every so often.

Once the tub reached a decent temperature, he motioned with a hand towards the tub. His body, covered in layers of fancy fabric, was turned towards the open windows to give some privacy for Alei to strip down. It took little effort to reveal her freckled body fully to the cool breeze flowing through her room. To escape the chills, the Inquisitor's petite frame slid into the water.

"Thank you"

She spoke softly as Dorian sat nearby on the couch; his eyes focused on the many books Alei had a habit of leaving out. A simple hand gesture was given to her showing acknowledgement of the thanks.

_This is nice._

As the Inquisitor slid more into the water, a creak came from the stairs.

"Ma vhenan, things need to get done and that cannot happen if you're hidin-"

Solas paused in his slightly bitter words once seeing Dorian peering at him from behind a book and Alei's eyes staring widely in surprised. Her body slid further down into the wooden tub to hide.

"I believe this is my cue to go"

Dorian rose from his spot, book still in hand, as he headed towards the stairs where Solas stood with a scowl of being tricked by the Tevinter. The tan man had talked to Varric in helping to get Solas up to Alei's room. The faux excuse was that Alei was not cooperating and would only reason with the bald elf; a ploy to getting Solas and their Inquisitor talking before strain came. 

When passing the apostate, Dorian softly whispered something that Alei could not hear from the tub. It wasn't like she made much effort being that her filthy clothes sat several meters away and any form of clean ones were just as far.


	4. Gentle Touch

If presence alone could kill, Alei would be dead in the wash bin that shielded her. She didn't even have to double check. One look alone was enough to show how perturbed he was over the stunt pulled by the beloved Tevinter. He was was most likely even angrier that he didn't see through it.

His pride was too strong to be fooled so easily by someone like Dorian.

"Sol-"

Her nervously spoken words were cut off by a heavy sigh.

"I cannot believe you would go to such lengths. You always do surprise me, Lethallan"

_What?_

A ping of hurt quickly found its way in Alei's heart that what happened was a ruse by her. Her mind rushed quickly to how that was once a compliment when first told to her and now it was flung like a insult. If her freckled body could have slid more into the water it would have, but at this point she was already sitting with her knees almost against her chest from before when first hearing his voice.

Alei's brows furrowed more at the sound of the floorboards creaking with each step she assumed were Solas' footsteps.

_It was probably better this way._

He was likely going to leave and return to his studies, nothing unusual for someone to do if in a bitter mood. She made nothing of it, except for the pouting expression slowly taking place on her face over his actions, until suddenly there was the feeling of someone near by. Her vibrant eyes widened when a warm hand was placed, with care, on her naked shoulder.

A soft sigh came from next to her as Solas sat, an arm crossed over his chest which was attached to the hand on her shoulder, with his body facing the opposite direction of hers; his eyes towards the walls of her room rather than her body.

"You know a more intimate relationship cannot be pursued right now. There are important things that need to be done, with stopping Corypheus a priority"

Alei had no reply to give to him.

This was exactly why she didn't tell him her deeper feelings. This lecture was given once before and she knew closing the Breach overshadowed anything less important, even if that meant their relationship was part of that. After all, it would be terrible to watch the world fall to pieces for the sake of feelings.

_It also helped prolong the heartbreak that was bound to come._

She heard again, a sigh from Solas.

"Why do you make that hard to oblige to?"

He spoke very softly, so much so that Alei almost didn't catch it. She most likely wouldn't have, if he hadn't been just inches from her larger-than-normal ears.

Alei first ignored the faint whisper and simply looked at her hands slowly pruning from being in the water. There was no way to answer him. Not after the words Cole spoke yesterday.

"I...I should get out and go see what the advisers need"

The Inquisitor carefully started to get out of the tub, while she did Solas looked away even more towards the beautiful stain glass of her room. 

The hand on her shoulder pressed down a bit.

"Do not go yet"

With those words, Alei was quick to sit back down in the slightly dirtied water with a small splash. She sat in more silence as he didn't speak again after those few words; her arms were crossed over her chest.

What he wanted was answers, but the answers were exactly what he was telling her were needing to be avoided.

_He needs to know._

"Solas"

Alei took in a small breath before speaking more; she knew this had to be addressed and she'd be damned if Dorian would be the reason again.

"Ar lath ma"

Her words lacked the full pronunciation, yet they are finally out and said in a way she knew he'd understand. 

The silence of the room made uneasiness grow of speaking the words she did, that was until he spoke.

"Ar lath ma, ma vhenan"

Solas spoke in almost a forbidden hush whisper, his hand removed itself as he moved where he was sitting. The mage was now sitting along the side of the wash bin, in the direction where his body was opposite of hers; his usually cold eyes were warm as they looked at Alei's freckled face.

Her chest tightened lightly as his slender hand slid onto her naked leg. It partly surprised them both that he put it there and even more so when he moved it gently on her damp skin.

"I'm sorry, we need to get you dress-"

Alei pressed her pale lips softly against Solas', cutting off his speech.


End file.
